I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Showing posts with label Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets. Show all posts
Just for the record, the above YouTube video comes from the channel Going Awesome Places with Will Tang and he's showing off some of the wonderful things to do in Alberta's Banff and Lake Louise, a place that I got to visit all the way back in 1990.
I mentioned in a recent Xmas-based article on KKP that not all Canadians want to celebrate the Holidays in their own country. Perhaps it's something about the fact that walking daily in a winter wonderland with the temperature at a slightly cool -280 degrees and the winds coming in at a breezy Mach 2 might not be the most enjoyable environment. 🧊🥶
I know that folks do like to head down south for days, weeks and even months at a time but I wanted to sate my curiosity about where Canadians like to go during winter once and for all. And I was surprised to find out that at least some of my fellow countrymen do like to keep things within the Great White North while others do desire something more tropical. As such, possessing that whimsical nature which often powers my Author's Picks, I've come up with five destinations while providing the appropriate songs to accompany them.
(1967) Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets -- Blue Chateau（ブルー・シャトウ）
The news came here just within the last hour, but unfortunately, Brian Wilson, one of the co-founders of the legendary band The Beach Boys, passed away today at the age of 82, just nine days shy of his next birthday.
As a kid, I knew The Beach Boys as this summer-loving group with this distinct sound due to their harmonies. They were popping up on talk shows and their records and songs regularly appeared in TV commercials. I hadn't realized how influential they and their sound were becoming at the time but my growing impression was that Wilson, Mike Love and the rest of the band were seen as mercurial musical gods, suffused with incredible talent. Their Wikipedia page mentions how much they inspired future artists and genres, and within the Japanese sphere of things, The Beach Boys influenced Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and indirectly Junk Fujiyama（ジャンク藤山）, Bread & Butter（ブレッド＆バッター）and to a certain extent, Kazuhito Murata（村田和人）, among other singers and bands. Perhaps they also had a hand in the whole Group Sounds genre which was popular in the late 1960s.
For me, The Beach Boys' most representative song is "Good Vibrations" which came out in October 1966, a few days shy of my first birthday. The way it's set out in its own Wikipedia page, it seems as if it's been described as a truly hallowed piece of art, and therefore, I can't really add any further insights to it aside from providing a passage from that page:
One of the most influential pop recordings in history, "Good Vibrations" advanced the role of the studio as an instrument and effectively launched the progressive pop genre, heralding a wave of pop experimentation and the onset of psychedelic and progressive rock. The track incorporated a novel mix of instruments, including cello and Electro-Theremin; although the latter is not a true theremin, the song's use of the instrument spurred renewed interest in theremins and synthesizers. The flower power-inspired lyrics reinforced the Beach Boys' association with the 1960s counterculture, while the phrase "good vibes", originally a niche slang term, entered mainstream usage.
I didn't even know about the Electro-Theremin. All this time, I'd assumed it was one of the band members' vocal abilities which was responsible. These guys were truly progressive and revolutionary. I can't really write on the complexity of its structure. "Good Vibrations", true to its title, just struck me over the years as this good-time tune on the beach with all of the happy and shining young folks frolicking as if there were no tomorrow.
Not surprisingly, all of the most recent comments under the two YouTube videos for "Good Vibrations" have been in mourning for the loss of Brian Wilson. All of my condolences to the Beach Boys, their families, their friends and their fans.
What were some of the big hits coming out in 1966?
Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets -- Aoi Hitomi（青い瞳）
A few decades ago, someone had the bright idea to enshrine the third Monday of January as Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year. As much as folks and maybe even authorities have tried to debunk it, the concept has remained stuck to pop culture like hawk talons on a fish. Ironically, a lot of those credit card and utility bills have poured into my mailbox today.
Well, Monday is bad enough but a Blue Monday calls for some help and perhaps I can humbly provide some "blue" songs that can have you swaying, skipping, grooving or even dancing. Enjoy!
Welcome to another weekly article of Reminiscings of Youth. A few years ago, I posted up the theme from the first "Casino Royale"(1967), the hot mess of a 007 spoof starring David Niven and Peter Sellers which nonetheless inspired Mike Myers'"Austin Powers" franchise. As I said in that article, I have seen the movie once and then bits and pieces on YouTube. However, what I've appreciated most about the flick is the music and that Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass theme penned by the amazing Burt Bacharach that is so infused with the Swinging 60s of Great Britain. If I were ever to get to London someday on a vacation and somehow got a Savile Row suit, I would love to walk up and down the streets with that song in my ears.
However, there was one scene in "Casino Royale" that also caught my attention because of the music and, well, Ursula Andress. I remember she was hopping all about with a bunch of shocking pink feathers and I guess the above footage only shows the seconds or so before that one scene. At the same time, there was the music which was jazzy and oh-so-sexy with a breathy voice that squeezed out "The Look of Love" as if a woman in Bubble Era Japan were trying to get out of her bodicon dress. I think the scene and the song play off of each other very well because of the languid pacing out of both of them, and considering the lunacy that precedes and follows in "Casino Royale", Sellers and Andress having a little intimate fun makes for a pretty calming oasis.
Dusty Springfield was someone that I had heard of before when I was a kid in the 1970s because of those K-Tel LP compilation commercials on television but the song that featured her (can't remember the title) had her sound a whole lot different than those vocals on "The Look of Love". The bossa nova jazz was woven together by Burt Bacharach with Hal David taking care of the lyrics, and it was even nominated for a Best Song Oscar in 1968.
Jazz pianist and vocalist Diana Krall is one of many artists who have covered "The Look of Love", and it's included as the title track for her September 2011 album. The original version was released in April 1967, so what were three songs from Japan that got their release at around the same time?
As a J-moppet in the mid-1960s, there were two images on television that terrified me back under sofa cushions and behind my parents. One was the first face of Balok from the original "Star Trek" episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver".
Of course, I hadn't been aware of the episode at the time but terrifying Balok was used as the final still photo for the ending credits during the second season of "Star Trek". Not sure why my parents, who were never sci-fi fans, just happened to have the show on at the time when those credits popped up. I can only gather that they were getting back at me for filling up my diapers a little too often.
The other image that probably was responsible for me filling up my diapers was good ol' Rover from "The Prisoner". How does a white bouncy balloon become something this scary? I don't know but the producers pulled it off. It especially frightened me when Rover caught an errant Villager and the camera just had to show the victim screaming through the balloon.
"The Prisoner" starring Patrick McGoohan (whose face frankly scared me too) was one of those one-of-a-kind programs that has become legend despite only having a one-season run between September 1967 and February 1968. There was no way at the time that I could have understood the overarching philosophical and political themes at play. It was always Rover and that pre-commercial shot of Number 6's head racing toward the camera before prison bars stopped it. In fact, it wasn't until some fifteen years later when reruns of "The Prisoner" began playing on the local "The All-Night Show" that I could begin to understand what was really going on between Number 6 and all those Number 2s. And at the same time, I could also finally hear the theme song.
I only learned about this in the last few days but the composer for "The Prisoner" theme song was Ron Grainer who is already on KKP's Reminiscings of Youth series because of his work on the theme for "Doctor Who" which he accomplished with Delia Derbyshire. The other big surprise was that the original version of "The Prisoner" theme was a far more sedate deal known as "The Age of Elegance", and yep, it definitely sounded elegant, but show producer McGoohan was having none of that and he kept pushing Grainer to speed it up (I guess "Faster...more intense" wasn't just George Lucas' mantra). It finally did speed up to become this boss and very 1960s brassy tour de force tune that was unlike anything for James Bond or Napoleon Solo. The British always did brass right back in the day. I guess in a way, the theme was reflective of Number 6 himself: elegant, fast, brash and cunning.
By the way, I've been hearing rumours that Christopher Nolan may be interested in doing a cinematic version of "The Prisoner". If there's any director who can pick up on the challenge, it would be Nolan although I wasn't quite as enthused about "Tenet". Anyways, who was picking up on the Japan Record Awards hardware in 1967?
Grand Prize: Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets -- Blue Chateau（ブルー・シャトウ）
When I began the first Xmas season for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in the inaugural year of 2012, it was on this day that I put up Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由実）1978 "Lodge de Matsu Christmas"（ロッヂで待つクリスマス）, a J-Xmas tune that was as welcome and heartwarming as a bowl of soup on a cold day. At the time, though, I was naive enough to assume that Yuming's（ユーミン）Christmas classic was the very first original Japanese Yuletide song. However, I was quickly set right on discovering that the Queen of Kayo Kyoku herself, Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）, had recorded an original Xmas song all the way back in 1952, "Hitori Bocchi no Christmas"(ひとりぼっちのクリスマス）. And I'm sure that there have been others.
Well, for example, here is this Christmas-themed maxi-single or mini-album by Group Sounds band Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ）titled "Bara no Christmas"（バラのクリスマス...Roseate Christmas） from 1967. I was initially clued in on the Blue Comets' contribution to the Holidays via Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu"November 1st podcast which covers the band's versions of some Christmas classics. However, the tracks on "Bara no Christmas" are original creations.
I'm taking care of the first track here, "Blue Candle", which sounds like an older doo-wop tune like "Earth Angel" by The Penguins, thanks to the melody by Blue Comet Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫）who would later change his name to Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）. Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）was responsible for the lyrics of a couple enjoying their romantic Holiday season. The song doesn't sound like a typical Christmas song, but I think that it still plays into the usual Japanese notion of the Holidays there being more like a second Valentine's Day.
Uh, no...I'm not talking about "You Know My Name" from the 2006 Bond film"Casino Royale" starring Daniel Craig in his first outing as 007. I've yet to see his final outing in "No Time To Die" but someday when I have time...
Actually, this ROY article will be referencing the 1967 "Casino Royale" starring the late Peter Sellers in his lone outing as 007. I've seen it once in its entirety and then in bits and pieces over the years, and I have to say that either way comes out the same: a rather trippy 60s hot mess. But for those who love 60s pop culture, this is quite the movie and I think that it had quite the influence on the "Austin Powers" franchise.
If I ever opt to watch this "Casino Royale" again, I will still have that sardonic and ironic look on my face but a couple of songs came out of this movie that have stood the test of time, one being "The Look of Love" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and performed by Dusty Springfield, and it got its Oscar nomination for Best Song.
Bacharach also did the music for the entire film and so he was also responsible for the other neat song, namely the theme for "Casino Royale" as performed by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. The crazy thing is that my family actually has their album "Going Places" by the group.
The hit "Going Places" was released about a month before my birth, September 1965, and remembering what I've heard from this album, it's Alpert with his distinctively puffy sound on his trumpet and his guys just having a brassy fun time especially with "Tijuana Taxi". Not quite sure why my folks bought this one; perhaps it was in commemoration of my arrival on Earth...I was actually going places, albeit from the womb to the surgeon's hands.
But getting back to the Brass and "Casino Royale", when I was watching the flick for the first time on telly (missing the first several minutes), I kept hearing the theme popping up here and there all throughout the movie and I was wondering whether it was indeed Herb Alpert. Well, of course it was. I mean, that trumpet is unmistakable. The amazing thing is that even from listening to all that down-in-Mexico music by the Brass on "Going Places", their "Casino Royale" theme has been called the distillation of all that was swinging in 1960s London and I couldn't agree more. It's sexy, heroic, adventurous and fun with a wink of humour. I guess that it's Roger Moore.
According to Wikipedia, the theme song was Alpert's 2nd No. 1 hit on the Billboard Easy Listening chart in June 1967 where it stayed for a couple of weeks.
However, the movie itself first appeared in theatres on either side of the Atlantic in April of that year, so what was premiering in the Japanese record stores in that month according to Showa Pops (unfortunately that site no longer exists)?
Yukari Ito -- Koyubi no Omoide （小指の思い出）(although J-Wiki states that it came out in February)
Haruo Minami -- Sekai no Kuni Kara Konnichiwa (世界の国からこんにちは）(a lot of artists were releasing the same song that month)
Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets -- Blue Chateau（ブルー・シャトウ）(although J-Wiki states that it was released in March)
Unfortunately, I have to let readers know about another death in the Japanese music world today as composer Koichi Sugiyama（椙山浩一）passed away on September 30th due to sepsis at the age of 90. Commenter Kyle Andrew informed me earlier this morning and I had actually caught the news of his passing even earlier during the NHK News. I actually told Kyle that I would come up with an appropriate tribute sometime over the weekend but it seems as if my project manager today told me that there was nothing coming down the pipe for assignments, so now I have my opportunity to do a Creator article for Sugiyama.
His name has already been well represented within the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for years since he composed some very famous kayo hits including The Peanuts'（ザ・ピーナッツ）"Koi no Fuuga"(恋のフーガ）, The Tigers'（ザ・タイガース）"Mona Lisa no Hohoemi"（モナリザの微笑）and a couple of folk band GARO's tunes "Gakusei Gai no Kissaten" (学生街の喫茶店）and "Kimi no Tanjoubi"（君の誕生日）in the 1960s and 1970s.
But in the NHK tribute to Sugiyama and for that matter, the Fuji-TV profile on him in the video at the top of this article, it wasn't just his Group Sounds contributions that were noted. He was also lauded within the reports as the man behind the soundtrack for the iconic "Dragon Quest" game that started its long run from 1986, something that I hadn't realized although even I, a non-gamer, could recognize that heroic theme. There were already some messages of condolences within the comments under the above video. Sugiyama himself noted in a past interview during the NHK report that he had wanted to base the game soundtrack on classical music rather than pop music.
In the J-Wiki article for him, his specialization in music was directed towards the genres ofkayo, anison and game music; his lists for the last two types in that article are quite long indeed. The Wikipedia profile on him mentioned that one day in the 1980s, Sugiyama, who was already very famous, had sent the Enix Corporation, which was behind "Dragon Quest", a fan letter for the music on a shogi game which sent the staffers there into a major swoon. They were also very impressed with his knowledge of games. I gather that this would be the equivalent of Alan Silvestri or John Williams sending a 👍 to an American game developer on letterhead. This would eventually lead to a collaboration between composer and company, and the rest is "Dragon Quest" history.
Sugiyama was born in what is now Taito Ward in Tokyo on April 11th 1931. Music was all around him during his upbringing which would explain his life's career, but J-Wiki also noted that he and both of his parents were also great lovers of games, decades before video games appeared, so that probably also explains the composer's interest in those.
He attended the University of Tokyo half-heartedly pursuing a science degree after getting disappointed on finding out that he couldn't get into a music college since he couldn't play the piano. On graduating, Sugiyama had a part-time job at a parts factory before getting a position at a radio station and Fuji-TV as a director in 1958. He left the network in 1965 and by 1968, he was fully focused on composing and orchestration.
However, even before then, he was already coming up with the melodies. In fact in October 1966, one of his earliest contributions to kayo kyoku came in the form of a single by The Peanuts, "Roma no Ame"（ローマの雨...The Rain in Rome）. The 20th single by the duo, Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）was the lyricist with Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）as the arranger for this relaxed hip-swiveler of a song characterized by the staccato blast of the horns in the intro and their smooth Bacharach-like feeling in the song itself. I also enjoy the haunting but enticing vocals by Emi and Yumi.
As has been stated, Sugiyama was also providing songs during the Group Sounds period of the late 1960s. In December 1966, he and Hashimoto once more created a song...this time for the GS band Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ）as a B-side for their 7th single, "Izuko e"（何処へ...Where To?）. The brief "Sentimental City"（センチメンタル・シティ）is a pretty interesting song which seems to have a couple of rhythms spliced together: a laconic introspective melody with that electric organ and then a really skippy one as if there were two different settings for whoever the protagonist is. Above everything is a boozy saxophone.
Several months later, Hashimoto and Sugiyama would team up again to provide yet another one of the big Group Sounds bands, The Tigers（ザ・タイガーズ）, with one of the biggest hits in their career, "Kimi Dake ni Ai wo"（君だけに愛を...Love Only For You）. This was their 4th single from January 1968, and this time Sugiyama would also create the melody and arrange it for Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）and the guys. I think that there's even a bit more psychedelic rock in the proceedings. In comparison to The Peanuts' "Roma no Ame" with some of that twisting in any reflective dancing, maybe The Jerk might be the move here. Just guessing. Selling more than a million records, "Kimi Dake ni Ai wo" reached No. 2 on the new Oricon Singles chart.
If someone can identify the dance move in the video above while The Tigers are playing, that would be greatly appreciated. It's probably not The Jerk. Anyways, I wanted to put up this video since all of us can see how Sawada performed his moves. According to J-Wiki, at concerts when he beseeched his fans with "Kimi dake ni..." and flung out the "Golden Index Finger", a lot of them simply fainted away. You must learn the ways of the Force, Kenji.
The Group Sounds era faded away very early in the 1970s but Sugiyama continued to provide his music to the top stars of the day. Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）was one of them, and for him, the composer created a couple of tracks for Saijo's June 1976 album"Ai to Jounetsu no Seishun"（愛と情熱の青春...Youth Filled With Love and Passion）. One of them was "Itsumo Futari de"（いつも二人で...Always the Two of Us） which had Sugiyama pairing up with another prolific lyricist, Yu Aku（阿久悠）. A prowling cat of a tune with a flutter of rock over a jazzy rhythm, the lanky aidoru was more than game for the arrangement. One would think that he may have been doing an old-fashioned soft-shoe in the recording booth.
Just one more example of Sugiyama's music that I will put up here also hit the public's ears in the same year as the Saijo album. This time, though, it came out in the form of aidoru trio Candies'（キャンディーズ）11th single,"Heart Dorobo"（ハート泥棒...Heart Thief）. Released in September 1976, it's an especially dynamic tune for Ran, Sue and Miki as they sing about a young teenage girl, who may be a bit of a tsundere, quietly falling hard for a guy who has suddenly raised himself to the lass' demanding expectations, according to Haruo Hayashi's（林春生）lyrics. The song rose to No. 17 on Oricon and sold about 190,000 records.
For those who had only known Sugiyama for "Dragon Quest" and the other games that he provided music for, I thought this Creator article could give some more information on how he also contributed to kayo kyoku in general. But in finishing this off, let's get back to the beginning and realize that the "Dragon Quest" overture made it into this year's Olympic Opening Ceremonies. I'm hoping that Sugiyama did hear and appreciate its appearance. Certainly, many fans did from what I've read in the comments. All my condolences to him and his family and friends.
I realize that it's a day early for Reminiscings of Youth but on hearing yesterday about the passing of The Rolling Stones' drummer, Charlie Watts (1941-2021), I felt that I should have put something up as soon as possible. Now, I was never a Rolling Stones fan but their presence in popular culture was so great that even as a non-fan, at least some of their songs were very well known to me such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash", and I knew about the outsized personalities of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Often when I compare 80s aidoru superstarsSeiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, I use the analogy of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as respectively applied to them.
(Video from the Drum Channel)
My lone Rolling Stones anecdote comes from years back when I was teaching at the second school during my 1994-2011 time in the Kanto region. One Monday, I had to do a series of level checks for young employees at the swanky Four Seasons Hotel in Tokyo not too far away from Japan's equivalent of The Pentagon. Once I was finished, I was given a pleasant afternoon tea service as part of their gratitude and I had a nice conversation with the hotel manager which led to some of the famous stars that have stayed at the Four Seasons. When he told me that The Rolling Stones had stayed there, his eyes rolled so hard in his head that their pupils could have bulged out the back of it. Let's say that they weren't the cleanest or the most button-down of guests.
And yet, I couldn't have imagined that Charlie Watts would have been involved in any of the debauchery (although I came to know about his vices in the 1980s). When I first saw him on television in the 70s or 80s, he already looked old to me compared to Mick and the others. Watts' hair was either already gray or graying. I don't know anything about his drumming philosophy or style but he always struck me as being the stoic parental anchor behind those drums. He appeared well-grounded and very dapper in his suits, and I think that he would have been the most approachable Stone.
For this ROY article, I've gone with one of their first hits, "Paint It Black" which was released as a single in May 1966. It's one of the Stones' songs that I know very well and even my anime buddy who has love for electric guitars has played "Paint It Black" constantly as part of his practice regime. Not being too cognizant about the Stones and their work, as I've mentioned above, listening to "Paint It Black", which was created by Jagger and Richards, there was the familiar melody with the sitar which I would find out on Wikipedia was the first time that a song with such an instrument would become a No. 1 hit. I also discovered that "Paint It Black" dealt with a person's earth-shattering loss and how he saw the world during that time of mourning.
Covers of "Paint It Black" have been done over and over in the decades since the song's initial success, and that includes Japanese artists. Given the direct translation of "Kuroku Nure!"（黒くぬれ!）, rockers such as RC Succession（RCサクセション）and Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）have given the Stones' classic their own take. RC Succession, led by the late Kiyoshiro Imawano（忌野清志郎）, is performing the song above although I couldn't find out who had provided the Japanese lyrics.
Now, what was being released in May 1966 in Japan according to Showa Pops?
The above photo was shot midway up the steps toward Hie Shrine in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. I had wanted to take this picture of what seems to be a mass of traditional (the shrine gate) and the modern (skyscrapers) in the Akasaka background. If I'm not mistaken, I think that this was just after I had a delicious sushi lunch with my good friend and his wife.
Akasaka is one of the more expensive neighbourhoods in Tokyo but it also has plenty of wallet-reasonable restaurants and izakaya including a section which has a proliferation of Korean BBQ eateries. Apparently, it is also a setting for many a romantic Mood Kayo and I was able to find one in the form of "Ame no Akasaka" (Rainy Akasaka).
In its first iteration, this was the 15th single for the band Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ） released on Christmas Day 1968, and nope, it is most definitely not a Christmas song. Indeed, it is a Mood Kayo and it is the second such song for the Blue Comets after declaring that the group was no longer into Group Sounds. Beginning with "Sayonara no Ato de"（さよならのあとで）which was released a couple of months earlier in October, Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets decided to embrace the more traditional bar-friendly genre and shed their original guitar-based rock-n'-roll sound.
Yet, this creation by lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）, Blue Comets member/composer Tsunaki Mihara（三原綱木）and arranger Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）still had some faint echoes of a slower GS sound probably due to that electric organ in there. Hashimoto's story of remembering a love affair in Akasaka which passed away sadly perhaps could also be transferred to the fate of the Blue Comets themselves in their original run. Although "Sayonara no Ato de" was another hit for the group by achieving a No. 3 ranking on the Oricon weeklies, "Ame no Akasaka" did more modestly by peaking at No. 20. The J-Wiki article for the song also mentioned that it was from this point that popularity for the band began to wane.
A few covers were done of the song over the decades since that initial release by the Blue Comets. It has never been made clear online when exactly a version by The Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ）was recorded but J-Wiki could only narrow it down to sometime in the early 1970s. Anyways, The Peanuts' version has probably made it onto many a Mood Kayo compilation or one of their own collections, and this one has more of a Henry Mancini feeling with those strings and less of that heaviness of the original.
Enka singer Hiroshi Kadokawa（角川博）also covered "Ame no Akasaka" through a cool and contemporary arrangement as his September 1989 single. It's still Mood Kayo but the strings are silkier and of course, a mellow sax solo has also been thrown in. Kadokawa also covered another rainy city in song years later.
The next time that I get back to Tokyo, I'm going to try and get some more night shots of Akasaka.
That was the question that I had in my mind when I listened to Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets'（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ）14th single"Sayonara no Ato de" (After the Goodbyes) which was released in October 1968. "Sayonara no Ato de" also has the distinction of being the Blue Comets' first single following their declaration that they were no longer a Group Sounds band.
According to the J-Wiki article on the band, this situation apparently occurred earlier that year when the Blue Comets were invited to the United States to perform on television's famous "The Ed Sullivan Show" to perform their most famous hit "Blue Chateau"（ブルー・シャトウ）. However, while they were there, Blue Comet and future prolific songwriter Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫）, later to take on the stage name of Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）, was floored by the rock and pop that was emanating from America at the time, so when they all went back home to Japan, Inoue was ready to break up the Blue Comets but surrounding intervention prevented that from happening, leading instead to the No More Group Sounds declaration.
So, out came "Sayonara no Ato de", a song by lyricist Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）that had perhaps more in common with the genre of Mood Kayo. But then again, when I first heard the combination of the vocals of Inoue and youngest member Tsunaki Mihara（三原綱木）, I'd just assumed that this was another GS ballad which has made me wonder how close the two genres actually were in terms of melody and arrangement at times. But with repeated listenings, I can understand the use of the Mood Kayo label.
The J-Wiki article on the song itself includes some fairly harsh assessments by the late Susumu Kurosawa（黒澤進）, a music critic who was also a specialist on Group Sounds. He basically described "Sayonara no Ato de" as a problematic song which spelled the (beginning of the) death knell for the entire genre following which he couldn't stand referring to The Blue Comets as a GS band. Well, the band did declare themselves as no longer a GS band but it sounds like Kurosawa blamed them for bringing the entire castle down. In any case, Inoue who had composed "Blue Chateau" had already been lamenting the end of the era even earlier as mentioned in the KKP article.
Regardless of the supposed tempest surrounding the song, though, "Sayonara no Ato de" was another hit for the group as it hit No. 3 on the shiny new Oricon weekly rankings. It later became the 43rd-ranked single for 1969.
"Kayo Kyoku Plus" friend and collaborator JTM kindly sent me a rather large book called "The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films ~ Mutated Edition" as a birthday present some months ago. It's all about the monster movies of past decades that for whatever reason never got as far as the celluloid stage. The one aborted project that really got my attention was "Batman vs. Godzilla"!
Yes, there had been thoughts and fantasies about the Dark Knight of Gotham going up against the Big Green One of Monster Island. And what better actor to battle the rubbery monster than the late great Adam West himself? I'll have that ham on ham right now ("Quick, old chum! Hand me that can of Bat-Oxygen Destroyer!" "Holy Atomic Breath of Death, Batman!")! I mean, could anyone have expected Christian Bale or Ben Affleck signing off on that one?
Indeed, the 1966 TV series of camp was my very first exposure to the Caped Crusader. Back then, it wasn't about the angst of Bruce Wayne in terms of morality and filial tragedy along with the horrible decay of Gotham City. It was all about the onomatopoeia-friendly fights, the Batmobile, the goofy villains and all those other devices with the Bat prefix. Of course, there was also the super-catchy, go-go boot-friendly, and lyrically economical (aside from the "nanananananana", it was just the title being chanted) theme song by Neal Hefti.
Well, I actually rolled the dice here and searched via Wiki/J-Wiki on whether there was a Japanese theme song for the original show (1966-1968) since I assumed that "Batman" the series also got its time in Japan as did many American shows. Guess what? I rolled a 7!
Yup, the opening had the original version but the ending theme consisted of the cover version thanks to a collaboration between the prime Johnny's Entertainment group, Johnnys（ジャニーズ）, and the Group Sounds bandJackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルーコメッツ）. And this one had Japanese lyrics although I haven't been able to track down who took care of the words. Furthermore, there was some more of the beatnik music thrown in with a bevy of finger snaps and bluesy sax. Fun for the whole family!
Couldn't resist...just had to include the fight scenes! Plus, if you wish, you can take a look at Johnnys' take on an old standard.
Just found out within the last half-hour from this week's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）that drummer and leader of Group Sounds band Blue Comets, Jackey Yoshikawa had passed away on April 20th at the age of 81 in Gunma Prefecture.
For a lot of the kayo fans, the most famous song by Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ）will probably remain "Blue Chateau"（ブルーシャトウ）that was composed at The Lake Louise Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada by band member Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫）, later to become songwriter Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）. However, I wanted to find another song in tribute to Yoshikawa, and noticed in the "Kayo Kyoku Plus" article for "Blue Chateau" that it was the third and final entry in the band's "Blue" series.
The first entry was "Aoi Hitomi" (Blue Eyes) which was released in March 1966 as an English-language single, their 2nd, written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）with the late Inoue composing it. As to why it was given English lyrics, from what I could glean from the J-Wiki article for "Aoi Hitomi", apparently there was consternation from someone about why a Japanese song should ever be released from a Western label; the producing company was Columbia Records so the song was made to have English lyrics. If I can give my two pennies, I think that there was perhaps a feeling that if a Japanese band were to release a single in English, there would be a certain cool cachet given to them.
"Aoi Hitomi" the English version is the above video, and the plan did work since it sold over 100,000 records and was seen as the breakout song for Blue Comets. Some four months later in July, the Japanese-language version (below) was released as their 4th single, and it did even better by selling over 500,000 records and becoming a nationwide hit. I can imagine that it would have hit No. 1 if Oricon had existed back in those days.
Becoming famous as one of the foundation blocks behind the whole Group Sounds wave in the late 1960s, I gotta say that both the English and Japanese versions of "Aoi Hitomi" have that 60s "Cool, baby, cool!!" factor in there, especially with that organ. I could easily imagine Austin Powers swiveling his butt to it, and maybe it could have snuck onto the soundtrack for either a Tarentino flick or the first "Ocean's Eleven" movie from 2001 by Steven Soderbergh. "Aoi Hitomi" became such a hit that Blue Comets got their first invitation to play the Japanese version (also written by Hashimoto) on the Kohaku Utagassen that year.
My condolences to Blue Comets and Yoshikawa's family on their loss.
This article has been created under somewhat unusual circumstances since the person who actually requested the lyrics for the song in question here via the Contact Form has been somewhat difficult to contact. I tried to send e-mail to him directly but it got bounced back.
First off, the song is their 11th single"Kokoro no Niji" (Blue Rainbow) by Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルー・コメッツ）, the famous Group Sounds band of the 1960s. I hadn't heard of it before so I have to give thanks to the good man from Brazil who asked about it since the ballad is quite pleasant to the ear. Usually when I think of Group Sounds music, I think of melodies inspired by bands like The Beatles, Herman's Hermits and groups from the original British Invasion, but "Kokoro no Niji" has quite the gentle Latin vibe in its music, provided by one of the vocalists, the late Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）under his pen name of Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫）.
The lyrics were written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and spell out a man's woes over a lost happy romance although at the end, he may be saying goodbye to all of the mourning. "Kokoro no Niji" made it as high as No. 5 on Oricon after its release in January 1968.
Anyways, the lyrics in their original form can be found at Uta-Net while underneath are the romanized words:
Anata wo shinjite, koko made kita keredo Futari de mitsuketa niji ga mienai no Hai iro no sora e, kanashimi wo nosete Kayowai chouchou wa doushite kieta no Itsuka anata to musubareta hi ni Dakishime dakishimete Aete ii no ne Watashi no kokoro wa namida de yureru kedo Kanashii chouchou wa ozora e kaeru Kanashii chouchou wa ozora e kaeru
Actually, the person who asked me also informed me that a cover version had been performed by the Brazilian band Os Incriveis.
Now that Tokyo will be hosting the Summer Olympics for the 2nd time in a little less than 7 years' time, eventually the organizers will have to get a superstar singer to come up with a zinger of a theme song. Of course, various artists from Maki Ohguro to Misia to Anri have come up with songs that were used for various Olympiads, but for the Tokyo Games, the chosen singer or singers will have to have 20/20 vision for 2020 since it is the capital of Japan, after all.
Now, take a fellow by the name of Bunichiro Kawamura（河邨文一郎）. In 1970, he was given the assignment to write the lyrics for the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo with Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦） as the composer. National broadcaster NHK gave Kawamura 3 conditions to help him formulate the theme song for the Sapporo Games: 1) The song has to last long after the Games are done. 2) It has to express the hearts of the residents of Sapporo. 3) It shouldn't have a heavy ceremonial feel but it must be able to be sung by everyone from the Buddhist monk on his guitar to thousands of people in chorus (translated and paraphrased from the J-Wiki article for the song). No pressure. And the kicker was that Kawamura's stock in trade wasn't lyrics.... he was an award-winning poet and orthopedist! The poor man had to go through 2 weeks' worth of writer's block before that pen of his finally got going.
However, Kawamura somehow got the job done. In February 1971, "Niji to Yuki no Ballad" (The Ballad of Rainbow and Snow) was first broadcast on the NHK"Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた...Songs for Everybody） series and would later get officially released as a single, starting off with folk duo Toi et Moi（トワ・エ・モワ）.
The above two videos have Toi et Moi giving the recorded and live performances. I decided to write about "Niji to Yuki no Ballad" since I actually caught it tonight on a special NHK concert performance. The song was the duo's 9th single released in July 1971 and was the most successful version, hitting the No. 7 spot on Oricon. I can't be sure about Condition 1 when it comes to how long its popularity lasted once the Sapporo Games were over, but I think Conditions 2 and 3 were met. It doesn't come off as overly ceremonial, but it does show that pride in an anthemic but folksy way.
Some weeks after Toi et Moi's version got released, Group Sounds band Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルーコメッツ）brought out their own folk/GS cover of the song as their 25th single. However, since it seemed that everyone got their fill of "Niji to Yuki no Ballad" through Toi et Moi, there weren't too many people left to go for The Comets' cover.
But then between Toi et Moi and The Comets was the version given by Pinky & Killers（ピンキーとキラーズ） which was incidentally the band's 2nd-last single released in August 1971. Lead vocalist Yoko Kon（今陽子） gives a nicely full-throated performance here.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
Then there is Mari Amachi's（天地真理） soft and relaxing cover which was never released as a single and considering that the 70s aidoru had only started her career in October 1971, she sounded remarkably reassured here. The song was actually a track on her debut album, "Mizuiro no Koi"（水色の恋...Water-Coloured Love） (December 1971), which managed to become the top album of 1972.
Now, as for those 3 conditions, I wonder if NHK will be dusting those off once more in the year 2018, and who will be the one to follow them to get a song out. Could it be Noriyuki Makihara? Yasushi Akimoto?
The original Blue Comets started out as a rock band back in the late 50s playing US military bases. However, several years later, with the addition of Jackey Yoshikawa as the drummer/leader, and changes in musical tastes, it became Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets, a Group Sounds band.
"Blue Chateau", the band's greatest hit, has a Canadian connection in that it was composed by the late Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫）, one of the vocalists and sax/flute player, at the Lake Louise Hotel in Banff, Alberta during a stay there. It had originally been made for actress/singer Nana Kinomi （木の実ナナ）but feeling that the song was meant to be sung by a male vocalist, it became a piece for The Blue Comets to tackle. Good for them since it became a smash hit, selling 1.5 million records, earning the Grand Prize at the Japan Record Awards and a place at the year-end Kohaku Utagassen. It peaked at No. 14 on the new Oricon charts. "Blue Chateau" is also the third and final song of their "Blue" series, after "Aoi Hitomi"（青い瞳....Blue Eyes） and "Aoi Nagisa"（青い渚....Blue Shore [although it's translated as "My Lonely First Love"]). Their appearance at the Kohaku was interesting, since at the time, Group Sounds music had been equated to all that was immoral in life, but NHK apparently let them in. The band's 8th single was released in March 1967.
However, the composer of the song has gone on record stating that creating "Blue Chateau" triggered the end of the Group Sounds era. In a 1987 interview (via J-Wiki), Inoue (who passed away in 2000) put it out straight by stating that "It was tragic." Furthermore, he added:
".....in fact, composing 'Blue Chateau' was a dilemma. Because I ended up creating something that was completely opposite to the Western music that I had been striving for. It was also tough to see other GS bands starting to copy it. I believe that the GS tragedy started from that song."
"I had intended to create new music, but it got swallowed up by kayo kyoku."
On the other hand, leader Yoshikawa said, "The GS boom left a lot of good songs. It's great that (Inoue) could be proud of them."
My two cents? I think Inoue was being a bit too hard on himself. According to Mark Schilling's"The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture", the (inevitable) death of Group Sounds can be laid more on the doorsteps of the money-hungry studios (who threw together as many mediocre GS units as possible) and the bands who did end up copying from his style. And as we all know from years (or decades...as in my case) of listening to music, fads and booms are just part and parcel of music history. New music did come, but not by anyone in GS. Instead, it would be by a younger generation led by Yumi Arai（荒井由実）, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and the band Happy End, among others.
One of the other songs that had resonated with me and launched me on my 30-year odyssey with kayo kyoku was "Sumire Iro no Namida"(Violet Tears) by Hiromi Iwasaki （岩崎宏美）. It was just such a beautiful ballad. Iwasaki started out as an aidoru in 1975, but it must've been evident early to producers that she would not stay that way. She has a voice that could only belong to stage musicals....and sure enough years later, she would play a role in the Japanese production of "Les Misérables". Also, "Sumire Iro no Namida" was her 25th single in 6 years, so she was certainly not lacking for work. Iwasaki also stood out physically in a year where a lot of the new wave of aidoru were getting cute Dorothy Hamill bobs or Seiko-chan cuts. She had started her career with a similar short cut in the mid-70s but by 1981, had grown her locks to waist-length. No longer an aidoru, she was very much a songstress.
"Sumire Iro no Namida" was released in June 1981 and peaked at No. 6 on the Oricon weeklies before ending up No. 45 on the annual single charts. She personally won a Japan Record Award and appeared in the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen where she showed her tender side by weeping into the second verse which got all of the other female singers to rally around her.
Iwasaki's heartful rendition, though, was actually a cover. The original singer was Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets in 1968. It was the B-side to the group's 11th single, "Kokoro no Niji"（心の虹.... Rainbow of the Heart） which came out in January of that year. That single peaked at No. 5 on Oricon.
Here is Iwasaki herself performing the song on stage. By the way, "Sumire Iro no Namida" was written by Yukiko Marimura（万里村ゆき子）and composed by Hiroshi Oda（小田啓義）.
